Suburban Doctor Accused of $1.7 Million Medicare, Insurance Fraud

Update 5:35 p.m., May 15

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago confirmed that the "Sunrise Medical Center" referenced in their indictment against Cecilia Ibrahim was listed with a Flossmoor address and has closed. Patch has found two addresses, one in Flossmoor and one in Frankfort, connected with Ibrahim's practice.

Original Post

A Frankfort woman who ran Sunrise Medical Center has been charged in a federal investigation into practitioners who allegedly defrauded Medicare and private insurance providers.

Cecilia Ibrahim, 50, was charged Tuesday with one count of health care fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. She is accused of scheming $1.7 million from Medicare and private insurance through false billing, according to an indictment filed in federal court.

Ibrahim, an internal medicine physician, is among dozens of defendants charged in a nationwide in a Department of Justice and Department of Health and Services, according to an U.S. Attorney's office.

Between March 2006 and August 2009, Ibrahim sent in more than 3,200 bogus claims to Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield for surgeries she did not perform, according to the six-page indictment. Ibrahim used the billing code for spinal decompression neuroplasty when she allegedly instead performed a non-surgical procedure known as intervertebral differential dynamics therapy.

The false billing resulted in a lost of more than $300,000 to Medicare and $500,000 to the private insurer, according to the indictment. The federal government seeks at last $882,500 back from the proceeds.

The Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday charges against 89 medical professionals for allegedly defrauding Medicare to the tune of $233 million in falsified claims.

Seven people were charged in Chicago with health care fraud in five separate and unrelated schemes, according to U.S. Attorney's office. All of the are accused of defrauding the Medicare program, or violating a statute which makes it illegal solicit, pay or receive payments in exchange for Medicare referrals.

Gary S. Shapiro, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said Tuesday's charges were part of an ongoing effort to "deprive dishonest health care providers of their illegal profits" and show that "fraud will be found out and prosecuted."

"We will not tolerate medical professionals and providers who abuse our health care system,” Shapiro said.

Ibrahim's arraignment date has not yet been set.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel B. Cole is prosecuting the case.

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